May-June 2014

Retrospect

by Sean Potter

May 18, 1980: Eruption of Mount Saint Helens

When Mount Saint Helens erupted on the morning of May 18, 1980, it created an environmental disaster of cataclysmic proportions unlike any that had been seen in the United States. Following a series of small earthquakes and minor eruptions from late March through mid-May, the volcano, which lay dormant for more than a century in southwest Washington state, literally blew its top.

Contributing Editor SEAN POTTER is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist (CCM), Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM), and science writer with an interest in weather history.